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James Franco (see more)

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James Franco

Known for his breakthrough starring role on Freaks and Geeks (1999), his mother, Betsy Franco,
is Jewish, and his father, Doug Franco, was of Portuguese and Swedish
descent...
Growing up with his two younger brothers, James graduated from
Palo Alto High School in 1996 and went on to attend UCLA, majoring in
English. To overcome his shyness, he got into acting while studying
there, which, much to his parents' dismay, he left after only one year.
After fifteen months of intensive study at Robert Carnegie's Playhouse
West, James began actively pursuing his dream of finding work as an
actor in Hollywood. In that short time, he landed himself a starring
role on Freaks and Geeks
(1999). The show, however, was not a hit to its viewers at the time,
and was canceled after its first year. Now, it has become a cult-hit.
Prior to joining Freaks and Geeks (1999), Franco starred in the TV miniseries Sin motivo aparente (1999). After that, he had a starring role in Cueste lo que cueste (2000).

Although he'd been working steadily, it wasn't until the TNT made-for-television movie, James Dean
(2001) that James rose to fan-magazine fame and got to show off his
talent. Since then, he has been working non-stop. After losing the lead
role to Tobey Maguire, James settled for the part of "Harry Osborne", Spider-Man's best friend in the summer 2002 major hit Spider-Man (2002). He returned to the Osborne role for the next two films in the trilogy.

Trade Mark

Trivia

Auditioned for the role of Peter Parker in Spider-Man (2002), but was given the part of Harry Osborn.

James appeared in two movies that premiered on the same day, Jóvenes salvajes (2002) and Spider-Man
(2002), both opening on May 3rd. The success of the two films was
highly varied as Spider-Man film has to date amassed a box office gross
some 67 times greater than that of Deuces.

Franco told interviewer Terry Gross
that when he was in junior high school, he was arrested for shoplifting
cologne from a department store and reselling it with his friends at
the school. He noted to Gross the irony that, in 2008, he shot an
advertising campaign in which he became the face of Gucci cologne.

While a guest on her NPR program "Fresh Air", Franco told interviewer Terry Gross
that when he went back to UCLA to finish his undergraduate degree in
creative writing, he was worried that his classmates and professors
might think of him as "sliding by" because of his acting career, so he
took a lot of extra courses to make sure they knew he was serious. He
told Gross that the cap on the number of units that a student is allowed
to take in a quarter was 19, but in his last quarter he took 62 units -
which as far as he knows is a record for a single student.

He completed his private pilot's license to prepare for his role in 2006's Flyboys (2006).

Is a talented mathematician. He interned at Lockheed Martin, the
American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology
company.

Has directed short films for two R.E.M. songs, "Blue" and "That Someone Is You" from their 2011 album, "Collapse Into Now".

Franco volunteers at the charity Art of Elysium in Los Angeles,
helping kids with serious medical conditions. In January 2011, he was
honoured for his work at the hospital, receiving the Spirit of Elysium
accolade.

His production company is Rabbit Bandini Productions, which he runs with friend and producer Vince Jolivette.

In 2009, Salon.com named Franco the "Sexiest Man Living.".

May perhaps be one of the most academically accomplished actors
(an "extreme scholar") in Hollywood history: besides his BFA in English
from UCLA, he has two MFA degrees - both in writing - from Columbia and
Brooklyn College, and a third MFA, in film, from New York University. He
is continuing further degree studies while also teaching a graduate
class that takes students through the process of making a feature-length
film. (2011).

New York, NY, USA: His educational achievements as a "prolific
academic" are celebrated in a half-page ad in The New York Times paid
for by his alma mater, UCLA, with the tagline: 'Some A-Listers Actually
Get A's.' [March 2013]

Enrolled in NYU's MFA program for creative writing in Tisch school of the arts

In the Graduate Film program at NYU and the Graduate Program for Fiction Writing at Columbia.

On his father's side, he is the grandson of Daniel Franco, Jr. and
Marjorie J. Peterson. On his mother's side, he is the grandson of
Daniel Verne (born Daniel S. Verovitz) and Marjorie "Mitzie" Levine. One
of James's maternal great-grandfathers, Emanuel "Manuel" V. Levine, was
a prominent judge in Cleveland.

One of a handful of celebrities passing through Los Angeles
International Airport (1 November 2013) when a gunman opened fire
killing a TSA official. Franco was stuck on board a grounded plane
during the rampage.

As of 2014, has appeared in two films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Milk (2008/I) and 127 horas (2010).

Personal Quotes

[About painting] "I needed an outlet in high school and came
across painting. I've actually been painting longer than I've been
acting. A movie is a collaborative effort, and with painting you just
have yourself."

[About finding time to relax] "Never. It's an impossibility. I
don't even like to sleep. I feel as if there's too much to do."

[About what he looks for in a girl] "Just someone I can relate to
artistically and who can also be understanding and supportive of the
demands of my lifestyle."

When I was a child, I wanted to be an actor, but I had really bad
buck teeth. I didn't want to get braces, but my mom said I couldn't be
an actor if I didn't get the braces. So, I got the braces.

I worked at a McDonald's drive-through. I could always tell when
girls were interested: They'd drive around again and say, "I forgot
something."

Acting is an art form and you want to take roles that are
challenged and it's more of a challenge I think to play dark characters.
Not that I want to always play those, but it is a challenge and
challenges are rewarding and fun.

You know, directors kind of want different things. Some of them
think that if they just are always talking to you and keeping your
spirits up and everything that it helps you, and then some leave you
alone and give you your space.

[on playing gay characters] - It's funny because the way that kind
of stuff is talked about on blogs is so black-and-white. It's all
cut-and-dry identity politics. 'Is he straight or is he gay?' Or, 'This
is your third gay movie - come out already!' And all based on, gay or
straight, based on the idea that your object of affection decides your
sexuality.

There are lots of other reasons to be interested in
gay characters than wanting myself to go out and have sex with guys. And
there are also lots of other aspects about these characters that I'm
interested in, in addition to their sexuality. So, in some ways it's
coincidental, in other ways it's not. I mean, I've played a gay man
who's living in the '60s and '70s, a gay man who we depicted in the
'50s, and one being in the '20s. And those were all periods when to be
gay, at least being gay in public, was much more difficult. Part of what
I'm interested in is how these people who were living anti-normative
lifestyles contended with opposition. Or, you know what, maybe I'm just
gay.

[on using the videos trapped hiker Aron Ralston had made, in order to portray him in 127 horas
(2010)] He's not an actor giving a Shakespeare death soliloquy. He
didn't want to lose himself because that would make it harder for his
mother to watch. I knew that if I captured that, somehow, it would feel
very authentic and powerful.

[on accepting a position as a dramatics teacher at New York
University] I've been very fortunate. I had to work hard but had
opportunities to do everything that I wanted. That's one of the reasons
I'm teaching. I'm trying to give back to other people. That's what I
guess I want to do now - continue to be creative in a way that I can
give back.

[Observation while making a documentary about the porn industry]
When I was young, I got a video camera and my girlfriend and I decided
to film ourselves and watched it back and said, 'Yeah, well, let's never
watch that again'. Those performers in pornos, they are great
performers. They're not just doing it. They're selling it to an
audience.

[2011, on being a troubled youth] I was arrested for a lot of
petty crimes. It added up. I was a ward of the court and was put on
probation. Finally, I'd had enough chances, but they gave me one final
chance, and, fortunately, I didn't get into any trouble after that.
Otherwise, I guess it could have been like Lindsay Lohan,
when she's on probation and then she's accused of stealing a necklace,
and it's a kind of small thing that becomes a big thing. It's like
probation doesn't end.

(2011, on his earliest jobs) When I was 13 or 14 my dad got me a
job working the counter at a coffee shop. It sucked. I read books when
the place was empty and got let go when the assistant manager told the
boss he'd found $2 in one of the aprons and said I was trying to steal.
It turns out he had taken, like, $10,000. Later, when I wanted a car and
my parents said they'd match whatever I could pay, I got a job driving
carts at the Palo Alto Golf Course. I would read stuff like Naked Lunch
in the cart, and they let me go when they caught me reading the sequel
to A Separate Peace.

Another summer I got a job with a friend on his
father's construction crew, but we just got high every day...I was
(also) given an internship at Lockheed Martin. But that experience
showed me I never wanted to work in that environment.

(2011, on the failure of Caballeros, princesas y otras bestias
(2011)) I didn't write that movie. I was just doing my job. I think I'm
fine in it. They knew there were problems with that movie a year ago.
Just because it comes out after the Oscars, it's like "Oh, here's
backlash". Well, you have the year's best actress Oscar winner in it, so
wouldn't that boost ticket sales? And people want to blame me for that?
It's just ridiculous. There's this feeling about me like, "He's doing
too many things. Let's get him".

[2011, on hosting the Oscars] It's hard to talk about because it's
like assigning blame - not a fun thing to do. For three or four weeks,
we shot the promos and the little film that played in the opening. In
the last week, when we really started focusing on the script for the
live show and did a run-through, I said to the producer, "I don't know
why you hired me, because you haven't given me anything. I just don't
think this stuff's going to be good".

After the show, everybody was so
happy, and Bruce Cohen,
the show's producer, hugged me and said, "Steven Spielberg just told me
it was the best Oscars ever!" As far as having low energy or seeming as
though I wasn't into it or was too cool for it, I thought, Okay, Anne Hathaway
is going the enthusiastic route. I've been trained as an actor to
respond to circumstances, to the people I'm working with, and not to
force anything. So I thought I would be the straight man and she could
be the other, and that's how I was trying to do those lines. I felt kind
of trapped in that material. I felt, 'This is not my boat. I'm just a
passenger, but I'm going down and there's no way out'.

(2011, on being a workaholic) I don't know, but the first short
film I ever directed, years before I even went to film school at NYU, is
about a boy who is introduced to the concept of his own mortality when
his goldfish dies. He says to his parents, "I don't want to die," and
though they say he shouldn't worry because there's plenty of time, they
don't really comfort him. So he thinks, I have to do everything now. He
gets a neighbor girl to marry him, gets a job, starts a family.

Although
I've changed and relaxed a bit, my behavior shows I've thought along
those lines for quite a while.

[on the show Girls (2012)] I am fine watching a show about women dealing with men. I watched Magnolias de acero
(1989) when I was in junior high school and I can get off on female
bonding. Done right. It's more interesting than male bonding. I'm also
aware that I may just be giving myself too much credit: for all I know,
but for the grace of Judd Apatow, I could be just like those struggling male idiots I see on the show.

[on the moment that his successful film career failed to meet his
artistic expectations] I remember getting ready to do the third
'Spiderman', just thinking, I don't know if I can take it again. If I
can take all the work that doesn't seem to have a payoff that is equal
to the effort.
As soon as I started branching out and pursuing my
other interests I could say, 'OK... it's a place where more earnest
kinds of exploration can happen.'

There's this public persona that's 'James Franco' that's half my
creation but half of it isn't. Half of it's what other people write
about me or how they perceive me. [His art is] a way of using... an
image that other people have created and re-presenting it.

[on his comedic Bar Mitzvah, as he received the Hasty Pudding 2009
Man of the Year award] ...actually really touching. I'm Jewish, my
mother's Jewish, but I wasn't raised Jewish. I guess I wasn't a man
until tonight.

[on directing himself as an actor] I've done it many times before -
it's something I've grown used to. As a director you're viewing
everything from above or the outside. You just want to make sure all the
pieces are working well together. I've acted in enough films that I can
feel it from the inside, like okay, this is right... I actually don't
like to do it. I enjoy directing other actors more. I enjoy the
collaboration between directors and actors so much that - if I can get
away with not being in a movie that I'm directing - I will.

[on Marlon Brando]
Brando's performances revolutionized American acting precisely because
he didn't seem to be "performing," in the sense that he wasn't putting
something on as much as he was being. Off-screen he defied the studio
system's control over his image, allowing his weight to fluctuate,
choosing roles that were considered beneath him and turning down the
Oscar for best actor in 1973. These were acts of rebellion against an
industry that practically forces an actor to identify with his persona
while at the same time repeatedly wresting it from him.